Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed a military satellite in orbit. The moves came amid talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.
"Iran's second military satellite – named Nour-2 – has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth," the official IRNA news agency reported.
The Revolutionary Guards described the Nour-2 as a "reconnaissance satellite" in a statement on their Sepah News website.
In April 2020, Washington slammed Islamic Republic for placing its first military satellite into orbit.
Sepah News said Tuesday that the Nour-1 was "still fully operational and transmitting data".
The United States has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran's ballistic missile technology.
Iran, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are still engaged in their eighth round of talks which began on December 27. They are completing a draft text of an agreement to revive the 2015 deal, which former President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
